Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews
There were a few developer interviews at the recent press events, so today we are taking a look at interviews with Ion Hazzikostas from videogameszone.de.

Beta / Misc

Beta is Soon™

The team has been working hard since Blizzcon to make the content. The team has even added another boss to the Highmaul raid since Blizzcon!

Gul'dan isn't the threat in Warlords of Draenor, Grommash and the Iron Horde are. Gul'dan might even be an ally against them.

Classes and Races

Casters have slightly too many instant cast spells, especially healers that can keep themselves alive without ever using a spell with a cast time.

Melee used to be the masters of damage on the move compared to ranged, but over time ranged got more and more abilities that allowed them to do damage on the move.

Many classes will have talents that change depending on your spec. For example, From Darkness, Comes Light is really two talents built into one spell. This results in either talents that are bland or talents that do two separate things.

When it makes sense in Warlords of Draenor one spec may have one talent option, while another spec will have access to another. Almost all of the Level 100 talents work this way, and some older talents will also work like this.

For example, the Mage Bomb talent row could have all three bomb spells consolidated into one talent, which gives the mage a bomb based on their spec. This would free up two spaces on that row for more talent choices.

No brown skin for Orc players is planned right now, but the team has heard all of the player interest in subraces.

Dungeons and Scenarios

Mists of Pandaria Heroic dungeons were too easy for many players, which was somewhat necessary due to not having Normal difficulty dungeons at Level 90. Warlords of Draenor fixes this by having both Normal and Heroic dungeons at Level 100.

Normal dungeons will likely be similar to the Mists of Pandaria Heroic dungeon difficulty, while Heroic will be more challenging.

Raid Finder will be balanced around players having gear from Normal difficulty dungeons.

Gear progression will likely use Normal difficulty dungeons to gear up for Raid Finder and Heroic difficulty dungeons to gear up for Normal difficulty raids.

The Challenge Mode daily quest in Warlords of Draenor will give you a piece of epic gear that is on par with or better than Raid Finder loot, even before Raid Finder and maybe even the raids are open. This is awarded to anyone who completes the dungeon, meaning that there is no time requirement.

Warlords of Draenor leveling will make use of some solo scenarios at the end of a zone, similar to what we saw on Isle of Thunder.

Raids

Highmaul is very non-linear, with a layout that is similar to Firelands (open outdoor area with some optional bosses before the two final bosses).

Blackrock Foundry has a layout that is similar to the second part of Icecrown Citadel, with three wings of three bosses each. You can do the wings in any order you want, gaining access to Blackhand after all three are complete.

Less linear structures work better for players and feel better, so that is what will be used going forward.

There isn't a separate raid tier for each Warlord, and we may even see two or three in the first raid tier.

World Bosses

Attempts at creating a hard World Boss haven't worked out very well.

Sha of Anger may have been the most successful world boss in Mists of Pandaria. It was accessible, felt epic, and you could see him while leveling.

Three different world bosses are planned for Patch 6.0. Initially one boss may be available, with Highmaul quality loot. Then a few weeks later, a second world boss could unlock that drops Foundry quality loot. Much later in the tier, a third world boss could unlock that drops some Heroic raid quality gear.

If a world boss gives rewards that are better than anything you could get if you aren't a high end raider (Ordos), it diminishes the importance of raid zones. If rewards aren't that good, players will start raiding and the world boss won't be relevant anymore.

Ion

Finally joining Twitter has been nice, as it gives Ion a direct channel of communication with players and a way to share information with players. He doesn't want to share much new information about the expansion there though, as he feels it should come through the official sites.

Ion was a practicing lawyer for several years, as well as a hardcore WoW player from Day 1. He got to know some of the devs through playing and offering feedback, applied to Blizzard, and now he is the Lead Encounter Designer.

Resolved an issue where using an instant cast spell while under the effects of Spectral Guise was incorrectly causing the cooldown for Psychic Horror to reset.

Pet Battle

Resolved an issue where players on some Battlegroups were unable to queue for PvP Pet Battles.

Elemental pets should now correctly be taking less damage while the Sandstorm effect is active.

Old Alterac Valley

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Man, lots of nostalgia thinking about oldschool AV. I spent a LOT of time in there during Classic. Spending hours pushing back and forth until finally we were able to overtake a bunker and just get that minor foothold, and then scrambling to defend it... good times.

It's a feeling we'd definitely like to bring back to the game in some way. We're not sure that today's AV is really the best place to do that though. When you queue for a random battleground, you generally expect that battle to last maybe 15-20 minutes or so. It wouldn't really feel great to see your queue pop, click to join, and then see the AV loading screen and know you could be in there for hours.

But like I said, we definitely want to see those huge battles in WoW again. Ashran (our new world PvP zone in Warlords) takes a ton of inspiration from those early Alterac Valley battles. It's designed to be an epic tug-of-war style battle, where you can either take direct part of the battle on the front lines, or work towards various other objectives that will support your faction in the main push. It's not a quick fight that's over in under an hour -- it's something that could take days before either side can claim a real victory, and you're rewarded for just participating even if you're not there for the final push.

We really want Ashran to hit that same chord that Alterac Valley did when it was first added, and we think we can pull it off. Can't wait for you guys to get your hands on it.

You could bring back the old AV by simply removing it from the random battleground queue and making a queue system solely for AV. Or you could keep the current fast version in the random BG queue, and bring back the old version as a "Classic Alterac Valley" queue that isn't part of the random BG. I don't honestly think it would be all that hard for you guys to implement, considering you must have the old Alterac Valley files still on hand at Blizz HQ.
That's something we've talked about. It's still a possibility, but it's not quite as easy to pull off as just restoring some old files. Remember, the game has changed a lot over the past 9 years. We'd rather spend that time working on something brand new.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

ClassesThoughts on Searing Totem with a CD? HST has been a rewarding design. Seems essential for totem to feel meaningful.
Unlike healing cooldowns, DPS cooldowns, especially short ones, are mostly used on CD. Much less interesting. Even maintenancey. (Celestalon)

When making new abilities, do you prefer to design around art assets you already have, or to get new ones made up for them?
Prefer to get new ones, as time allows. Feels more special, impressive, and fun when you get something new, not recycled. (Celestalon)
We have to recycle art assets sometimes due to the realities of game development, but we try to minimize it, and hide it as we can. (Celestalon)IMO recycled art is a good thing if it results in extra dungeons and bigger raids
Spell FX and dungeons/raids/scenarios/world/etc are *usually* different artists. (Celestalon)

Are there any combat concepts that you avoid when designing because the engine doesn't handle them well, or at all?
Hmm... Well, we've learned what limitations to respect (as few as they are). For example, reliance on split second reaction times. (Celestalon)

What do you think about this idea: Spells that instead of having a set cast time, becomes stronger the longer you cast them?
It's something we've toyed with. Hard (but not impossible) to design interesting choices of when you want to let it go off. (Celestalon)
Most spell designs would either be optimal to let loose right away, or after as long as possible. Fun ones would be in between. (Celestalon)What about arcane blast stacks on a smart heal? If you spam it, you go oom quickly, but you have that burst option.
Saving Grace ends up with similar gameplay to that. (Celestalon)

when designing stuff, what sort of ping do you allow for? eg we average 200-300 from Australia yet usa is sub 100
We try to make sure the game feels playable for up to 500ms, but fudge it occasionally if we're short on other choices (AR). (Celestalon)

What is the defensive value of vengeance?
It does things like increase the healing of Word of Glory, the absorption of Shield Barrier, etc. (Celestalon)Why not completely remove vengeance? Why does a tank need to get hit hard to be effective?
So that things like Shield Block and Shield Barrier can stay competitive with each other. (Celestalon)

Will the change to vengeance in WoD make it once again extremely painful to level as a tank? -10 internet points if thats a yes.
No, opposite. A) You have basically no vengeance while questing/soloing. B) Tank damage will be *MUCH* higher without Vengeance. (Celestalon)

but won't that mean that doing solo content/leveling in tank spec will be a burden again?
Not at all. Your damage will be *much* higher without Vengeance. (Celestalon)

Character / ItemsWill there be any difference between a heroic, normal or flex heirloom weapon while leveling a character up to 100?
While leveling, yes. Higher tier is stronger. The gap narrows as you level, until they're identical at level 100. (Celestalon)Do we know how they'll compare to gear available at L100 (ending quest gear, pre-raid blues, etc.)?
I believe tweeted details on that. I think they were equal to dungeon blues? Not sure, offhand. (Celestalon)

ArtWould <3 visible backpacks beltsatchels potions poisons. Check out this custom fan model. http://t.co/sXMWskUego
I like your ideas man, and that backpack is great. Thanks for taking the time to make these suggestions. (artofcgrobinson)

Would you happen to know if Moonkin form models are being tweaked in WoD to complement character model updates?
They are not. (holinka)

PvPInstead of "Rank 1" titles being awarded to the top 0.1% would it not make more sense to just give it to the top 40 in 3s, 65 in 5s
Different regions have different numbers of players (holinka)

With the high BF currently, I think it's fine even in arena. Not all that different from Void Shift or UE+NS/GHW.
They are balanced around not having it. It doesn't make sense to make it usable then make it unusable a patch later. (holinka)

Will we see any changed in divine shield and lay on hands in arena? In my opinion Lay on hands should be able to use then bob.
Agree that at current tuning, LoH wouldn't be outrageous, but as soon as Warlords hits we'd have to change it back. (holinka)

Can you tell me why target marking is disabled in arena groups?
it's disabled on player targets in general (holinka)Is there a gameplay reason for that though? Or better said would it be problem to enable it?
Yes, visibility mechanics in the game that marking would render moot. Line of sight being the most obvious one. (holinka)

little Q: What if "swap spec" become an instant ability(CD) usable in combat? i fell would be nice4PvP.
We don't want people switching specs in combat. (holinka)

"Gul'dan might even be an ally against them." Stupiest shit i have ever heard..i´m not a WoW Lore Master..but even i know he is easiest the most evil Orc of all time..and he is even corrupted when we get that..and they "Might" make him a ally ,WTF..don´t make me laugh..you even know your own lore..Blizztard...

Seems to be that everyone thinks that Shaman are the only healers in this game. Maybe the point should have been a bit better, as in "healers outside of Shaman have too many instants", but when someone says "healers", using one of five classes as a counter example is a bit intellectually dishonest.

Hold on there Flash. If you'd read my initial post you'd see that I prefaced the whole thing with referring to the healers I play (Resto Shaman, Disc Priest) and wondering what instants Blizz were talking about as I'd certainly not experienced this phenomenon with my own characters.

"Gul'dan might even be an ally against them." Stupiest shit i have ever heard..i´m not a WoW Lore Master..but even i know he is easiest the most evil Orc of all time..and he is even corrupted when we get that..and they "Might" make him a ally ,WTF..don´t make me laugh..you even know your own lore..Blizztard...

Calm down. He just said that so the people wouldn't think so. He didn't want to spoil anything.

We have Riptide which has a small initial heal but is primarily a HoT and we can talent to get an insta-cast spell every 90 seconds, and that shouldn't count (as it's a talent choice). Ranged DPS have more insta-casts than healers do, so that he chose to direct his comments at healers makes me uneasy.

I play a Discipline Priest and I've got...what, two that aren't situational? One is SW:P, which is like killing something by pecking it to death by ducks, and Holy Fire, which packs up and takes its union-mandated smoke break the instant I press the button.

I mean, for pity's sake, most of the Spirit Healers on Isle of Thunder by now know me by my first name.

Hold on there Flash. If you'd read my initial post you'd see that I prefaced the whole thing with referring to the healers I play (Resto Shaman, Disc Priest) and wondering what instants Blizz were talking about as I'd certainly not experienced this phenomenon with my own characters.

i play a caster, and im ok if we cant cast while moving. BUT that means they need to take away a ton of mechanics on boss fights. bc there is already a shit ton of movement for ranged. melee can almost always just stand still yet casters have to move and lose dps bc of it? its bullshit.

so fine bliz, if you want us to stand still to cast, stop forcing us to move every 5 seconds in raids.

But thats sorta the point.

The thing is, Blizzard needs to then balance ranged dps. Their biggest issue is that normally dps works more like this:

-ranged hit hard, but are limited movement wise, and their damage drops because of moving and not being able to do anything
-melee hit fine, and can do so while moving, so they move a lot and will be attacking continuously

What THEY try to do is make it so ranged can nuke people down super fast, but escape melee, and melee can nuke ranged down really quick and close gaps. its a mess because of PvP

1) I am not liking these new updates at all. It feels like at Blizzcon they said one thing, and now they're going in a different direction. (Kind of like with Cataclysm).

2) They're making such a fuss about updating the old character models but truthfully they're not big of an upgrade at all, if anything the male Orc is even worse.

3)They keep pushing for changes that only they want. By all means it is their game, but if a million people want option X, and you keep pushing for Y, then maybe, MAYBE your strat is fucking flawed. Just sayin'...

4) It's becoming more and more obvious that they're just trying to milk this franchise for whatever they can, there is no spark in it anymore. They're trying to sell us "fluff" to make up for the harsh reality of the state that this game is in, which is not that good.

5) Most people that play WoW do so because they also ENJOY the story. People play an Orc because they have a connection with that particular race, or A Night Elf, or whichever u want. All of these RETCONS in WoW so far, are ludicrous. I don't care if this is a "alternate" reality that they're trying to push down our throats. There's a difference between "different" and "new" that's actually cool and makes sense, and "new" and "different" which is retarded.

The general vibe of the Warlords during Blizzcon was that while most of them will be "bad guys" part of the "iron horde" - 1 will actually be on our side, Durotan, and judging by the OFFICIAL description TEXT on the WoD site, Ner'zhul was a second possibility (description that since has been modified). Now they're making Ner'zhul a dungeon boss, and Gul'dan a possible ally. WTF. no, srsly, WTF.

Anyways, I shouldn't be getting so heated over any of this, but as a FAN of this game, I just don't appreciate the direction they're going particularly after they showcased one thing, only to change their minds AGAIN.....

Seems to be that everyone thinks that Shaman are the only healers in this game. Maybe the point should have been a bit better, as in "healers outside of Shaman have too many instants", but when someone says "healers", using one of five classes as a counter example is a bit intellectually dishonest.

Rejuv, WG, LB are all HoTs and as such need to tick before they are any use (LB needs stacking in the first place). That's why they are instant casts. Swiftmend requires that there is already a hot on the person it is used on. Tree of Life is a CD which you have to talent into in the first place. Mushrooms require you to be in their range and replacing them requires another GCD and it really doesn't pack that much punch without it being charged up (also takes time). Iron Bark and Barkskin are survival CDs which are instant for every class. NS+HT is not something spammable and is an emergency heal and the only one that doesn't require a setup outside of it being off CD.

So if you are going to compare healers, at least look at all the factors involved. Also as one that also has a disc priest, I don't really feel less mobile than my druid. Haven't played shaman much this xpac, but I doubt I would have much issues with it.

Rejuv, WG, LB are all HoTs and as such need to tick before they are any use (LB needs stacking in the first place). That's why they are instant casts. Swiftmend requires that there is already a hot on the person it is used on. Tree of Life is a CD which you have to talent into in the first place. Mushrooms require you to be in their range and replacing them requires another GCD and it really doesn't pack that much punch without it being charged up (also takes time). Iron Bark and Barkskin are survival CDs which are instant for every class. NS+HT is not something spammable and is an emergency heal and the only one that doesn't require a setup outside of it being off CD.

So if you are going to compare healers, at least look at all the factors involved. Also as one that also has a disc priest, I don't really feel less mobile than my druid. Haven't played shaman much this xpac, but I doubt I would have much issues with it.

The point is, when I'm on my Resto Druid, these are all things I can cast that are not interruptible, which is exactly the point Blizzard was making. A few other things:

- Any Resto Druid worth his/her salt will pre-hot, so healing is always rolling in PvP.
- In any defensivee scenario, Resto Druids are casting Mushrooms very early and building up that massive heal even out of combat. Druids have so much regen I just spam Regrowths on everyone around me to build up those 300K crit mushroom heals. That way while defending a flag, I can pop the Bloom and heal for a shi!t ton of damage to everyone around me. It's almost criminal how OP it is if used correctly.
- Ironbark is Resto Only.
- Every Resto Druid specs into Tree Form, so popping Tree + spamming Regrowth on everyone under the sun is something that happens all the time.
- NS + HT is not spammable, but with a 60 second CD, you end up using it a lot in a BG and it too can be a game changer.

And we're not even talking about shifting + displacer beast, or Night Elf Druids with their Shadow Meld + Flight Form macros (granted, this is only valid in World PvP). But really, unless their trinket is on CD and severely outnumbered, it's easy to stay up for a very long time as a Druid. Blanket Silences can be a bit annoying, but you can swap to Bear Form or at the very least put up Iron Bark and pop Battle Master if you need to.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Shefu

3)They keep pushing for changes that only they want. By all means it is their game, but if a million people want option X, and you keep pushing for Y, then maybe, MAYBE your strat is fucking flawed. Just sayin'...

It's not possible that you aren't just upset that they aren't doing exactly what you want? Do you have some sort of innate insight into what "a million people want"?

5) Most people that play WoW do so because they also ENJOY the story. People play an Orc because they have a connection with that particular race, or A Night Elf, or whichever u want. All of these RETCONS in WoW so far, are ludicrous. I don't care if this is a "alternate" reality that they're trying to push down our throats. There's a difference between "different" and "new" that's actually cool and makes sense, and "new" and "different" which is retarded.

I find that most people pick a race almost purely based on Racials or what looks good in Transmogs (Blood Elves anyone?).

You're points might be valid, but you clearly are speaking for yourself and not necessarily for the player base.

"Gul'dan might even be an ally against them." Stupiest shit i have ever heard..i´m not a WoW Lore Master..but even i know he is easiest the most evil Orc of all time..and he is even corrupted when we get that..and they "Might" make him a ally ,WTF..don´t make me laugh..you even know your own lore..Blizztard...

I couldnt even read it loud because of how absurd this gul'dan thing is. Gul'dan an ally? Other day someone was discussing with me that blizzard knows better what they intend to do. The more we know what they want to do, the less i want to know. This crap about Gul'dan puts even the eredar retcon to shame (or the thousands of boss recicled for cata). Metzen and the other crack heads should go back focusing in the game story instead of smoking whatever they are now. Cant wait him to go to the forums again and say "ah, i forgot guldan was evil!" or something like that.

Mists of Pandaria Heroic dungeons were too easy for many players, which was somewhat necessary due to not having Normal difficulty dungeons at Level 90. Warlords of Draenor fixes this by having both Normal and Heroic dungeons at Level 100.

I couldnt even read it loud because of how absurd this gul'dan thing is. Gul'dan an ally? Other day someone was discussing with me that blizzard knows better what they intend to do. The more we know what they want to do, the less i want to know. This crap about Gul'dan puts even the eredar retcon to shame (or the thousands of boss recicled for cata). Metzen and the other crack heads should go back focusing in the game story instead of smoking whatever they are now. Cant wait him to go to the forums again and say "ah, i forgot guldan was evil!" or something like that.

Yeah, he is dead at our time line. But he is the same orc in the alternative universe from the new expansion. He is the most evil orc in the warcraft story, thats why it seems blizzard dont even know what they write anymore.

Yeah, he is dead at our time line. But he is the same orc in the alternative universe from the new expansion. He is the most evil orc in the warcraft story, thats why it seems blizzard dont even know what they write anymore.

I couldnt even read it loud because of how absurd this gul'dan thing is. Gul'dan an ally? Other day someone was discussing with me that blizzard knows better what they intend to do. The more we know what they want to do, the less i want to know. This crap about Gul'dan puts even the eredar retcon to shame (or the thousands of boss recicled for cata). Metzen and the other crack heads should go back focusing in the game story instead of smoking whatever they are now. Cant wait him to go to the forums again and say "ah, i forgot guldan was evil!" or something like that.

You do realise that we have extremely little amount of information on the whole gul'dan thing.. For 1 the guy said "might".. not "he is 100%". Everything could change and if he is so diabolically evil, maybe he sees some gain in helping the horde and alliance take down the iron horde and then double cross them and lead to a burning legion expansion. Gul'dan lose again in current time azeroth and horde/alliance fighting to stop guldan re-summoning the demons of the burning legion.. That would be pretty cool. all im saying is not even beta yet, huge info dump coming soon, so dont look too deeply into stuff yet and take things with a pinch of salt.

Mobile ranged is the hunter's niche. So, no. It's directed at casters. As someone who has had a warlock main for years now, I'm actually okay if they took away our mobility. We'd get over it. I think him picking on healers is a little unfair, though. I think the issue is more with things like KJC [and I say that even though I had KJC pre-nerf and absolutely loved it... all the while thinking 'this has to get nerfed' and it did].

Wow that world boss explanation shows they totally lost it. They are only talking about loot, accessibility and why players should kill it. WHAT? The ONLY reason you would put a boss outside in the open world is to create drama and world pvp.
Isnt this a common theme from blue posts, this talk about loot and what/how a players should play or how the player get access to loot? Where is the dynamic gameplay talk. A sandbox mmorpg game should by dynamic with events that players create not by the developers. Developers give you the tools, players use them how they want it.

And sorry Sha of Anger didnt feel epic at all. Opposite faction interfered very rarely because they knew that not attacking would get them rewards faster since the respawntimer is so short. And since the respawntimer is so short the epicness of the boss goes down aswell. Boss was to easy too.
Proper world boss = one week spawn, spawns in the evening, mythic gear drops, hard as mythic boss(but since you can have outside help it becomes more easier, but the mechanics and damage should be atleast mythic power).